Out of Body Experiences

An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE), is an experience that distinctively involves an aesthesis of floating outside of one's body and in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside the body. Statistics reveal that 15-20% of the people have an out-of-body experience at some point in their lives, however how many understand that its an OBE is uncertain. OBEs are often part of a near-death experience, where the subject feels as if the soul is leaving the body. Those who have experienced OBEs sometimes claim to have observed details which were unknown to them beforehand. Some people have claimed that these experiences are similar to astral projections where they have even seen others having an astral projection i.e their subconscious has interacted with the subconscious of the others.

In some cases the process appears to occur spontaneously; in others it is associated with a physical or mental trauma, use of psychedelic or dissociative drugs, or a dream-like state. Some of those who experience OBEs claimed to have willed themselves out of their bodies, while others report having found themselves being pulled from their bodies (usually preceded by a feeling of paralysis). On other accounts, the subject accidently felt being outside his/her own body. Many techniques have been deliberately developed, that aim at inducing the experience, for example visualization in a relaxed, meditative state. Recent studies reveal that experiences similar to OBEs can be induced by direct brain stimulation.

In many cases, people who claimed to have had an OBE reported being asleep, on the verge of sleep, or already asleep shortly before the experience. The state of sleep was not particularly deep in majority of these cases (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). The subjects in these cases, then felt themselves awake; and about half of them even noted a feeling of sleep paralysis. Some people have claimed to have been to heaven, seen jesus and their guardian angels dressed in white.

Research reveals that near death experiences and extreme physical effort can also induce an OBE.

Some subjects report having had an OBE at times of severe physical trauma such as near-drowning or major surgery. In the case of motor vehicle accidents, they are able to recall the accident as if observing it from a location outside the vehicle i.e. like an onlooker. Along the same lines, a person running in a marathon could overwork himself or herself and feel "extraordinarily weightless" and actually see his/her body from above. This can also be a result of dehydration, as many medical experts claim.

Some parapsychologists have experimented on themselves by consuming drugs and have reportedly experienced OBEs after getting stoned on marijuana etc. One such parapsychologist named Susan Blackmore ,in her OBE, went down a tunnel of trees toward a light, floated on the ceiling and observed her body below, saw a silver cord (also called the umbilical cord in the traditional occult literature of astral projection)connected to her body, floated out of the building around Oxford and then over England, and finally across the Atlantic to New York. Then she floated back to her room in Oxford where she became very small and entered her body's toes. Then she grew very big, as big as a planet at first, and then she filled the solar system, and finally she became as large as the universe. she attributes her experience to peculiar brain processes that may lead to "neuronal disinhibition in the visual cortex," which is her explanation for hallucinations and NDEs.

One explanation of the OBE is that consciousness is a separate entity from the body (dualism) and can exist without the body and the body can exist without it. The disembodied consciousness can 'see,' 'hear,' 'feel,' 'taste,' and 'smell'. Some speculate that 'mind,' 'spirit,' or 'consciousness' can operate over vast distances and perceive objects by some triggered by some disease or stress.